Brittany Murphy, who died of an unexpected heart attack on 20 December, 2009, aged just 32, was an actress who lit up the screen in some otherwise gloomy films.

Her most memorable appearances were in the critically-acclaimed films 8 Mile (2002), a gritty autobiography of Eminem in which she played the rapper’s girlfriend, and Sin City (2005), portraying a barmaid being harassed by one of the comic book world’s sinister characters.

In contrast, her movie debut was in the glitzy 1995 comedy Clueless (loosely based on Jane Austen’s Emma) alongside Alicia Silverstone. She played Tai, an ‘ugly duckling’ given a makeover by the lead girls.

But she was much more at home in serious drama, such as the self-abusive Daisy in Girl, Interrupted (1999) with Angelina Jolie and Winona Ryder, and Riding in Cars with Boys, a 2001 film with Drew Barrymore.

She also voiced the troubled teen Luanne in King of the Hill, one of America’s most challenging and subversive animated shows.

Her ability to play characters facing personal difficulties may have stemmed from her upbringing. She was born in Atlanta, Georgia on 10 November, 1977. Her parents divorced with she was two and she was raised by her mother in New Jersey and then LA, where she received full backing to pursue an acting career.

During her teens she worked on several sitcoms, aimed at both adults (Frasier) and teenagers (Sister, Sister, Boy Meets World). She was 18 when she got her break in Clueless and the roles that followed were mostly comedic, such as early Jack Black flick Bongwater (1997) and Drop Dead Gorgeous in 1999.

But later in her career she was able to establish her reputation for diversity, as evidenced by the impressive number of films she was working on in the years leading up to her sudden death.

She was also a talented singer and scored a dance hit on the Paul Oakenfold single Faster Kill Pussycat.

She had been romantically linked to her Just Married (2003) co-star Ashton Kutcher, but later married British screenwriter and producer Simon Monjack who survived her.